Traditionally, seating assemblies, such as marine seats, have been molded by a variety of techniques such as roto-molding and blow-molding. Roto-molded seats have been disfavored since metal fasteners are required to be held in place in the mold during the molding operation so that the molded assembly can later be aligned and attached to a fixture such as a seat support assembly. This technique adds to the complexity of the molding operation. Additionally, prior art molded seats have had an undue amount of flexibility which imparted abnormal feel and discomfort to the person sitting in the seat. Metal and plywood inserts have been used in order to reduce the flexibility of the prior art seats but have met with unacceptable results.
The prior art has been unable to produce a blow-molded seat assembly having a mounting insert integrally molded therein because the heat of the fluid plastic utilized for forming the seat body portion of the seating assembly, has caused deformation or warping of the mounting insert which creates alignment problems when attempting to use fasteners, such as screws, to attach the seat assembly to a base.
The prior art has not successfully addressed the problems set forth above for blow-molded seat assemblies. Thus, there has been a need for an improved blow-molded seat assembly which provides increased strength, rigidity, and reduced manufacturing expense. There has also been a need for an improved blow-molding method of manufacturing seat assemblies which provides for a mounting plate to be molded into the seat assembly without causing deformation of the mounting plate and without the subsequent alignment problems set forth above.